Studio Partners With Trio of Entertainment Industry
Executives to Form Globalgate and Identify Intellectual Property
for Local-Language Film Production around the World
New Venture Launches with Co-Financing, Production and
Distribution Partners Televisa/Videocine, Gaumont, Nordisk Film,
Tobis, Kadokawa, Lotte, Belga & TME
SANTA MONICA, Calif., and
VANCOUVER, May 2, 2016 /CNW/ -- Reflecting the growing
popularity of local-language films in markets around the world,
Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), a premier next generation global content
leader, has partnered with international entertainment executives
Paul Presburger, William Pfeiffer and Clifford Werber to launch Globalgate
Entertainment, the principals announced today.
Globalgate has built a consortium of leading international
producers, distributors and co-financing partners who will identify
and provide priority access to intellectual property for production
as local-language films in territories worldwide. In addition
to properties controlled by its partners, Globalgate will identify
third-party properties in the U.S. and internationally for
development and production as local-language films. These
films will be distributed by the consortium's partners and
co-financed by the affiliated Globalgate Fund. Globalgate is
the first to apply such a distributor-aligned, equity
financing structure to local-language film production on a global
scale.
Globalgate's consortium partners include Belga (Benelux),
Gaumont (France), Kadokawa
(Japan), Lotte (Korea), Nordisk
Film (Scandinavia), Televisa/Videocine (Mexico), TME (Turkey) and Tobis
(Germany). Additionally, Globalgate is currently active and
expects partners to join soon in territories such as China, India,
and other key markets.
"I've known the Globalgate team for 25 years, and their
experience, relationships and entrepreneurial skills will help
establish the venture as a unique player in local-language film
production," said Lionsgate Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer. "By aligning ourselves
with some of the top content companies in the world, Globalgate
provides us with an opportunity to grow our presence in
local-language films, leverage the content in our library and
further mine exciting new IP and talent around the world."
Globalgate founders Werber, Pfeiffer and Presburger have been
the architects of successful local-language film strategies for
major studios and production companies including Fox, Warner Bros.,
Disney, Sony, Celestial, and Pantelion for over 25 years.
They bring to the venture tremendous experience in the
international marketplace and established relationships with
leading filmmakers, producers and distributors around the
world. Presburger will continue as Chief Executive Officer of
Pantelion Films and will focus his energies within Globalgate on
intellectual property to be produced for Latin America and the Latino market in the
U.S. as well as utilizing Pantelion's intellectual property within
the Globalgate network. Pfeiffer's continuing role as Senior
Advisor to Lionsgate will also complement his Globalgate
responsibilities.
The three executives noted their recent involvement in a wide
range of local-language films including: the Mexican remake of the
German hit comedy Fack Ju Goehte; remakes in China, France, and other territories of Mexico's hit comedy Instructions Not
Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever
released in Mexico and the U.S.;
remakes of Brazil's hit comedy
Se Eu Fosse Voce in several territories; and Germany's
hit family franchise Fuenf Freunde, based on
Enid Blyton's iconic book
series.
Local-Language Film Market Share Tops 50% in Major
Territories
The market share of local-language films is expanding in
territories around the world, currently topping 90% in India, accounting for nearly 60% of
China's booming box office,
reaching nearly 60% in Turkey,
more than 55% in Japan and 50% in
Korea. Local language films also comprise more than 40% of
the box office in France, 30% in
Denmark and a 27% market share in
Germany.
"Local language films are competing successfully with
Hollywood studio releases in
market after market, representing a large and growing share of the
box office in key territories around the world," said Pfeiffer,
Werber, and Presburger. "We're pleased to partner with
Jon Feltheimer and the team at
Lionsgate, along with some of the world's leading distributors, in
capitalizing on this opportunity with a ground-breaking venture
unique in its structure, focus and strategy."
Globalgate Consortium Partner Quotes
Gaumont's CEO Sidonie Dumas said,
"As Gaumont expands its footprint within and outside of
France with production of both
French and English language films alongside Gaumont's worldwide
television production, our alignment with Globalgate and its
impressive array of partners promises to complement our
strategies."
Kenneth Wiberg, Senior
Vice-President of Nordisk Film said, "Although we have produced
local language films for almost 110 years, we have over the past
years experienced an enormous increase in interest from abroad in
regards to Nordic content and IPs including a huge demand for
international remakes of our films. With Globalgate, and by adding
an experienced network of dedicated partners, we expect to be able
to capitalize even better on our extensive Scandinavian produced
film library."
Tobis' Timm Oberwelland, Peter
Eiff and Theodor Gringel
said, "The Globalgate team has long shepherded winning material in
and out of Germany. As we further build on Tobis' long
history and deep library, aligning with Globalgate and its partners
provides us enviable avenues to access valuable material as well as
exploit ours."
Kadokawa's Executive Officer, Daiji
Horiuchi, said, "We are excited to have our vast library of
films, books and manga adapted around the world by Globalgate.
William's decades at Disney, Sony, Celestial, and Dragongate
producing Japanese content, exporting Japanese content and
importing commercial content into Japan will be invaluable."
Lotte Entertainment's CEO Won Chun CHA observed that, "We are
thrilled to be part of this new venture. The Korean film industry
has dramatically grown over the last decade, and there is a
consistently high demand among local viewers for content variety.
We believe the partnership will bring us a unique opportunity to
exchange various intellectual properties from all around the world
and very much look forward to working with Globalgate and other
consortium partners"
Belga's Patrick Vandenbosch
added, "Our alignment with Globalgate affords us the opportunity to
draw upon unique scripts and remakes the world over and we are
happy to be part of such a prestigious assembly of leading film
companies."
TME's Kemal Kaplanoglu said,
"With Globalgate, TME will further expand its production of Turkish
films, which dominate our box office."
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate is a premier next generation global content leader
with a diversified presence in motion picture production and
distribution, television programming and syndication, home
entertainment, international distribution and sales, branded
channel platforms, interactive ventures and games, and
location-based entertainment. The Company has nearly 80
television shows on 40 different networks spanning its primetime
production, distribution and syndication businesses. These
include the critically-acclaimed hit series Orange is the New
Black, the hit broadcast network series Nashville, the syndication successes
The Wendy Williams Show and Celebrity Name Game (with
FremantleMedia), the breakout series The Royals and the
Golden Globe-nominated dramedy Casual.
The Company's feature film business spans eight labels and
includes the blockbuster Hunger Games franchise,
the Now You See Me, Divergent and John Wick
series, Sicario, The Age of Adaline,
Roadside Attractions' Love &
Mercy and Mr. Holmes, Codeblack Films'
Addicted and Pantelion Films' Instructions Not
Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever
released in the U.S.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in
box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rates.
Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of
approximately 16,000 motion picture and television titles that is
an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the
foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The
Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original,
daring, quality entertainment in markets around the
world. www.lionsgate.com
For further information, please contact:
Peter Wilkes
310-255-3726
pwilkes@lionsgate.com
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SOURCE Lionsgate